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6/29/2015

I wrote a little bit about Myrkur’s upcoming full-length debut, M, at the beginning of this month, when we heard its lead single, “Hævnen.”
At that point, I hadn’t heard the whole album, but I was excited about
it, based on a bunch of factors, not least of those being the
involvement of producer Kristoffer “Garm” Rygg, who made some of my
favorite records of all time with his band, Ulver. Garm wrote a short
statement about M, which was released along with “Hævnen,” and
in that statement, he said: “It’s no secret that Amalie [Bruun, the
woman behind Myrkur] loves Bergtatt (our first album), and there’s even a song on the album to prove it!” I love Bergtatt, too; I’d include it on the short list of my favorite albums ever, in fact. However, there are no Bergtatt songs covered on M,
prompting me to wonder just what the hell Garm meant when he said,
“there’s even a song on the album to prove it!” I haven’t heard an
answer to that question, but my best guess is, he was talking about
“Onde Børn,” a Myrkur original that sounds a lot like the songs on Bergtatt,
from its structure to its chord progressions to its rhythms to its
vocal/instrumental interplay. I could be totally wrong, of course! But I
think you could sequence “Onde Børn” pretty seamlessly into Bergtatt.
It wouldn’t necessarily make the album better — it’s a perfect album!
It can’t be any better than it already is! — but it wouldn’t make it
worse. Since “Hævnen,” I’ve heard M in full, and I absolutely
love it — it’s one of the best things I’ve heard in 2015 — but “Onde
Børn” is my favorite song on the record. Today, Myrkur releases the song
as a single accompanied by a video, in which the scenery and her
physicality are paired nicely with the track. You can watch/listen now.
Below the clip, I’ve embedded Ulver’s “I Troldskog Faren Vild,” the song
that opens Bergtatt, so you can better understand the
comparison I’m making. Both songs are outstanding, and you should listen
to both, because they’re better than anything else you’ll hear today.
Do it.